GJ tube

The group of chairs form a circle and we wait for the others to arrive. My palms are already sweating. I just want to get this over.

Dr E enters with a smile and moves around the circle introducing himself.

"Hi, I'm Dr E! I'll be performing Will's surgery."

My stomach constricts at the word and I take a deep breath. I look down at Will in my arms and he lets out a shuddered sigh and stretches. He melts my heart!

Everyone finds a seat and we begin the meeting. I glance around the room at each individual.. Speech Pathologist, Neonatologist, Gastroenterologist, Will's case worker, and his nurse. My heart swells as my eyes rest on his nurse. She has been part of our lives for so long. Not only has she followed Will throughout his care the last 3 months, she was Molly's nurse as well. She has held me up, comforted and encouraged me through this difficult journey and I will be forever grateful. She has become more like a sister to me.

The meeting progresses and we all decide on the right feeding tube for Will. He will be getting a special kind of GJ tube that will put his feeds through his stomach into the jejunum. The tube has to be special ordered and will take 10 days to get here.

More waiting.

Speech walks over to me after the meeting and... apologizes. She shows us the swallow study video and admits that Will is swallowing, but not efficiently. She apologizes for being short with me and not giving me the full details of the swallow test.  I tell her it's OK, it's in the past.

I take a deep breath of relief and we walk out of the NICU. I feel better than I have in weeks. Will will be getting a GJ tube placed, I'll be able to work on breastfeeding (sometime in the future), and we'll be able to bring him home soon.

We have a plan!